CRISIS AT CARSTAIRS
Female nurses assaulted by psychiatric patients Fears of a return to murderous rampages of the 1970s
CARSTAIRS state mental hospital is facing a crisis after three staff were viciously assaulted by patients in eight days.
Two of the victims at the hospital, which houses Scotland’s most dangerous
psychiatric patients, were female nurses.
A whistleblower told the Record one of the women was so badly beaten that she looked like “she had been in a car crash”.
Police confirmed they received reports of assaults at the Lanarkshire hospital on April 10 and 18. Scottish Labour demanded an inquiry.
The whistleblower claimed that staff shortages on some shifts and a lack of activities for patients were turning the Lanarkshire hospital into a powderkeg.
He said some staff were talking openly about a return to the dark days of the 1970s, when murderers Thomas McCulloch and Robert Mone butchered three people in a horrific escape.
The source said: “The general feeling is the hospital is not a safe environment for anyone at the moment.
“One old timer even mentioned the murders and said it feels like that’s going to happen again.
“People are saying it’s gone full circle back to the bad old days of the 70s, when the atmosphere was terrifying for both patients and staff.
“Some of the staff say they’re glad to be getting out.”
The source told how two members of staff, one male and one female, were attacked earlier this month as they put a patient who had recently been transferred from prison into his room.
He said the male staffer needed facial surgery for multiple injuries and the woman was “almost murdered”.
The source revealed: “The patient launched a violent and sustained attack on the male staff member, and when his colleague tried to help she was also assaulted.
“She was left with multiple injuries after he punched her repeatedly in the face and had his hands round her throat.
“He said he wanted to kill them both. Neither have been back to work since.”
A week later, another female nurse at the hospital was set upon by a patient.
The insider said: “An opportunist patient attacked her without warning. She was also left with facial injuries.
“There is no doubt that staff shortages on shifts are contributing to the recent events.
“One male nurse on duty with only two or three females can easily be overpowered by a patient – which leads to the females also being in danger.
“They are medical staff who have training in how to handle challenging situations. But they are not security officers.”
The source said staff did not have time to give the patients the attention they need, and cuts to activities programmes such as woodwork and arts and crafts had left patients sitting in a room all day looking at the walls or watching TV.
He added: “When people have that level of mental health problems they need to be kept busy – and they’re staring at four walls.
“They have a woodwork room full of equipment but it’s not used as there’s no staff.
“Other departments are not open and they’re talking about closing wards temporarily.”
The source said one 12-bed ward at the hospital was being occupied by only one patient. He said the patient had to have four members of staff with him at all times, which was costing the health board around £40,000 a month.
“We are not taking any female patients at all,” the whistleblower added.
“All females requiring care are being sent to England, but when this ward is freed up again it will lie empty.”
Scottish Labour called for an immediate investigation into the reports of assaults on staff.
Justice spokeswoman Claire Baker said: “The Scottish Government and authorities should carry out a full inquiry and decide if it is necessary to review procedures at Carstairs to ensure staff safety at all times.
“The workers and the public deserve answers.
“Nobody in any walk of life should face assault at work, and all measures must be in place to protect staff.”
Police Scotland said: “We can confirm police did receive two reports – on the 10th and 18th April – regarding complaints of assault at the hospital.”
Carstairs is part of the NHS and is run by the State Hospitals Board for Scotland.
Its website says the hospital has “the dual responsibility of caring for very ill, detained patients as well as protecting them, the public and staff from harm”.
Current patients include Mark McDonald, who killed his mother by stabbing her more than 30 times with a ktchen knife while suffering from paranoid delusions.
Gregor McGurk, who cut off his father’s head in 1997 and kicked it around a car park like a football, is also detained at Carstairs.
The hospital is still remembered for the horrific crimes of McCulloch and his lover Mone in 1976.
They hacked a nurse and a fellow patient to death with an axe and used a rope ladder
to climb the perimeter fence.
They then ambushed two policemen, murdering one and severely injuring the other, attacked and wounded two workmen and terrorised a young family in their home before they were finally recaptured.
In recent years, the hospital has been hit by a string of controversies. In 2015, we revealed that staff had lodged 14 complaints over allegations of bullying among workers.
We told in 2012 how auditors were investigating claims that bosses had paid themselves a controversial one-off bonus.
And in 2013, it was revealed that board members had been given payments totalling £50,000. The cash was dubbed “danger money” for working in a highsecurity environment, but those who received it did not come into contact with patients.
The points we put to the hospital authorities about the whistleblower’s claims, and their responses, are printed above.
Bosses did not confirm details of the assaults but admitted such attacks “can and do occur”.
They also confirmed that some activities for patients had been cut back, while insisting that patients still had enough to occupy their time.